Monitoring and managing material flow through a passageway at different check points in the passageway in real time for conditioning of seeds, for example, can increase operating efficiency and can improve profitability. However, no seed meter is available that meets the criteria of minimum damage to seeds, accuracy of measurement, cost effectiveness, and the feasibility of physical installation for retrofitting the flow meter in existing operations.
Existing devices have limitations in many areas, e.g., they draw a sample from the flow and measure the flow rate according to the weight per unit of time; or they employ a moving mechanism (belt or auger) to move the product and weigh the moving device with the product loaded thereon. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,423,456; 4,788,930; and 4,765,190 are illustrative of this method. Other devices measure the pressure, displacement or impact due to the force generated by the product flow (U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,157,661; 4,440,029; 5,335,554, and 4,637,262). Similar problems arise if the flowable material is a liquid.
Therefore, it is a principal object of this invention to provide a method of measuring flow rate of flowable material, including particulate material or liquids under continuous flow conditions, and an in-line continuous flow meter which is accurate, non-damaging to the material, easily adaptable to existing flow ways, cost effective, and gravity operated without moving mechanisms.
These and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.
A method of determining the rate of flow of a continuously flowing material through a passageway involves causing the material to move continuously downwardly by gravity in the passageway; placing baffle means in the path of the material to slow its downward movement and to create some dwell time on the baffle means of the material as it passes over the baffle means; intermittently determining the weight of the material passing over the baffle means with respect to increments of time; intermittently averaging data as to the weight collected from the preceding step, producing electronic signals from the values resulting from the averaging data; and converting the electronic signals to a flow rate of units of weight of material with respect to units of time.
The flow meter that measures the material flow in the passageway includes an inner housing resiliently suspended in spaced relation within an outer housing. The inner housing has an inlet upper end, and an outlet lower end. At least one baffle extends downwardly and inwardly from an inner surface of the inner housing within the path of the material to slow the downward flow of material.
A load cell on the inner surface of the outer cell measures the weight of the material on the baffle, preferably on an intermittent basis, and sends an electronic signal corresponding to the weighed material which transforms the signal to a flow rate with respect to units of time.
The flowing material may be either particulate material or liquids.